The General Clinical Research Center of the Downstate Medical Center is now in its 12th year of operation. The CRC acts as the central clinical facility for inpatient human investigation in the DMC complex. Patients from the State University Hospital, Kings County Hospital and several affiliated hospitals and their clinics are admitted to the CRC for study of their disease processes. Studies are carried out by individual investigators and investigative groups who have submitted prior protocols and are carrying on continued investigation of certain defined disease entities. These projects include the metabolic effects of portal caval shunt with arterial vascularization in the cirrhotic patient; chemotherapy of cancer using a variety of new agents in combination with the more standard chemotherapeutic substances; the pathogenesis and treatment of malignant hypertension and the metabolic effects of various diuretic agents; clinical effectiveness of Loxitane for treatment of severely disturbed behavior in retarded children; renal handling of uric acid and its role in the production of gout; mechanism of salt and water retention with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in scleroderma; effects of the metabolites of Vitamin D on calcium balance, specifically on patients with renal failure on chronic hemodialysis; the use of calcitonin (human) on Paget's disease of bone; intestinal sorbents in the treatment of uremia and hyperlipidemia in uremics, and studies on the effects of diuretics on total body potassium in patients with benign hypertension. A new outpatient component of the CRC will begin operation with a new grant year. This facility will serve for outpatient endocrine studies permitting some inpatient studies to be moved to the outpatient facility freeing inpatient beds for the new planned protocols. In addition, other outpatient protocols related to childhood glomerulonephritis, treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus and cardiovascular disease studies will use the outpatient facility.